Some of you who are regulars to this blog may well be asking
yourself - "How come she's doing a Guest Blogger Showcase spot on "The
Dragons Den" when she's been posting to the "Pick of the Week" spot as Design Team
Member, as well as doing a pictorial tutorial on the this blog, already?"

Well here's a little bit of background info. for you:

I've been a crafter of one sort or another for most of my life (a variety of crafts not just cardmaking as those of you who have visited my own Blog Crefftau MAES MIERI Crafts Blog will already have seen). But being forced to take early retirement because ill health and
worsening disabilities some three years ago meant I could give more time to my
crafting, to plan ahead, and have fun and relax making things when I'm able, rather than
have to rush projects because they were needed and weren't ready, because work and other
considerations had got in the way.

Not being able to work also means that I have more time, (though quite often not the health or energy,) to sit in bed with my laptop and browse around, and get involved in crafting forums and groups on the Internet. This contact with other crafters has been great because I realised that there were lots of crafters who, like me, had health/disability issues, and when I said that I was unable to craft because of aches and pains there were others out there who understood. And of course all this browsing around means I could see all the wonderful crafting items that are available as well as gain inspiration from other very talented crafters.

I joined the Stamping Dragon Designs Facebook group around 9 months ago - because I'd come across Janette Padley's lovely dragons, (and other digital downloadable items) on craftsUprint and then found out that there was this group on FB for dragon fans.

A
short while after I'd joined, all the FB group members were asked if
they would like to do a one off, Guest Blogger, showcase on this blog. After thinking for a bit, and considering whether it would be
something I'd be able to commit to and be able to see through to
completion, I decided to put my name forward -
after all, it was going to be far ahead in the future, and I could
start working on it way before the date.

I was given this
mid-November Guest Blogger slot! - and so I started thinking about what
to do as a project for the blog with lots of ideas flitting through my
mind - although I have to admit that it was only some six weeks ago that
it actually clicked with me exactly how I was going to make my
creations.

But then:

A few months ago, I was approached by Marleen and asked if I would consider becoming a regular member of a small Design Team on this blog. Because of my fluctuating health issues I was rather reticent to do this - but after some persuasion (Marleen
is very good at persuasion LOL - she explained that I would only need
to post every few weeks, could take my pick of digi-stamps from a list
provided to work with so could pick things that inspired me, and could
prepare several projects and posts ahead of time, when feeling
reasonable, so that if I was having a bad spell I wouldn't need to
stress about not being up to doing a project and post) - I found myself agreeing.

So
there you have it - I was scheduled to do a Guest Blogger Showcase
posting here on The Dragons Den before I was approached to become a Design
Team Member doing my regular "Pick of the Week" postings, and rather
than shuffle everybody's slots around it was decided that we'd stick to
the original "Guest" schedule and I'd take the opportunity to tell you a
little bit about myself.

For my projects for this post I decided
to make a "Christmas Recipes" box and matching Christmas card. The box
has cards inside for writing out favourite Christmas recipes on one
side and putting photos on the other - though I haven't done this yet.

I used the large sheets of cardstock to score, cut and stick together to
make the box and lid. I printed and coloured in the “Penny” image. I
also printed out the backgrounds and other elements I needed from the
kit, at the right size for my box, and cut, matted and layered, and
stuck these on my box and card, finishing off with holly leaves from my
crafty stash and some glitter glue.

"Rysetiau Nadolig" is Welsh for "Christmas Recipes" - one bonus of using digital stamps and kits like you can find in the Stamping Dragon Shop is the ability to make your creations in any language (being able to make Welsh cards when the Welsh ones in the shops were more expensive, and with less choice, than the English ones was one reason why cardmaking became one of my main crafts).

Even the back of my box is decorated.

I've made little cards to go in the box. This one is for "Pwdin Nadolig" - "Christmas Pudding". I'll put a picture on the front of the cards and the recipe on the backs.

Christmas Card

After printing everything out, and colouring in the digi-stamp, I cut
out and then matted and layered the pieces. I used a Perfect Layers
ruler to get an even, small, border. I stuck everything together with a
variety of sticky mediums to give different dimensions. Some glitter
glue was added for a twinkle, and a peel-off greeting “Nadolig Llawen” –
which is Welsh for “Happy Christmas” was also added.

I used a clear glitter glue on the sauce over the pudding and red glitter glue on the holly berries.

I hope that you've liked what I've shown you in today's post and will come back daily to check out future posts on various themes that are posted practically daily.